2 January, 2010

Music of the year, 2009

Well.  Not a vintage year for new music, so far as I'm concerned.

Ordinarily I'd identify a few highlights and disappointments from the numerous releases I'd bought, but according to iTunes only nine of those albums and EPs were released in 2009, and I wouldn't consider any of them to be especial highlights. Most of those I have been enjoying were released in 2008 or earlier (if we consider year of composition, much earlier, in the cases of Bach, Handel & Vivaldi).

Looking down the list, I've realised that I'd have to listen to all of the 2009 releases again in order to offer any meaningful comments and, frankly, I really can't be bothered to do so. Hence, I'll just post the list without further comment, as a record of the new music which grabbed sufficient attention to justify purchases but which failed to sustain my ongoing interest.
That's not to say I disliked these releases, just that I haven't felt much need to return to any of them for a while; the most recent 'last played' date is a little under two months ago. To offer a few more iTunes stats: of the 99 tracks included, I rated one 2-min track as '5 stars out of 5', seven as '4 stars', 21 as '2 stars' and only three as '1 star'; the remaining 67 received a 'listenable but unremarkable' '3 stars'.

Bass Communion – Chiaroscuro

Freiband & Bass Communion – Headwind/Tailwind

Gazpacho – Tick Tock

Imogen Heap – Ellipse

Jónsi & Alex – Riceboy Sleeps

OSI – Blood
[Link is to the standard single-disc edition; I wouldn't recommend the version with a bonus disc.]

Porcupine Tree – The Incident

The Resonance Association – Clarity In Darkness
[To be fair, my receipt of a review copy coincided with a somewhat life-changing event, so I haven't been able to give this the proper attention it deserves yet.]

Sylvan – Force Of Gravity

One landmark: three of those links are to .mp3 downloads, primarily because CD editions are a little awkward to obtain, but partly because distaste for the packaging excesses of Steven Wilson's projects has developed into me actually preferring to obtain music without artwork or a requirement for shelf-space.